Which station has the most platforms? - SkyscraperCity Which station has the most platforms? User Name As a general reminder, please respect others and respect copyrights. Go here to familiarize yourself with our posting policy. Page 1 of 5 Likes (Received): 5382 Which station has the most platforms? I'm sure this has been covered before (probably ad nauseum) but I cant seem to get the search function to find anything. Just wondering if anyone can help answer somewthing I was discussing with some friends last night. We were trying to work out: Which train station has the most platforms in : a) London b) The UK My guess was Birmingham New Street for the UK and Clapham Junction for London. As an aside we all agreed that the station with the most platforms under a single roof would be Waterloo for London and Birmgingam New street for the UK. Last edited by Octoman; February 26th, 2010 at 12:42 PM. These are a quick count of ones I use regularly: Stoke 3 Originally Posted by Zim Flyer These are a quick count of ones I use regularly: Stoke 3 Thats quite unusual isnt it?

To have an odd number of platforms I mean. I always thought they came in pairs. My local station in Epsom has 4 platforms. Just down the line is Cheam station which has to be a candidate for the weirdest station in the UK. It has two platforms with a massive no mans land between them. It looks horrible. They should at least plant some flowers or something. Thats quite unusual isnt it? To have an odd number of platforms I mean. I always thought they came in pairs. Nope, there are quite a few with odd numbered platforms Weybridge is a good example. 3 platforms, 2 for the mainline and 1 for the terminus coming from Addlestone. If you add Underground and the unused Eurostar platforms, Waterloo has 32. Thats quite unusual isnt it? To have an odd number of platforms I mean. I always thought they came in pairs. Yeh Stoke is a strange one, it's a busy station but doesn't have many platforms. Platform 3 is a buffer stop and is for the local train stations between Stoke and Manchester. Nice "North Staffordshire Railway" or "Knotty" architecture at Stoke. Thats quite unusual isnt it?

To have an odd number of platforms I mean. I always thought they came in pairs. My local station in Epsom has 4 platforms. Just down the line is Cheam station which has to be a candidate for the weirdest station in the UK. It has two platforms with a massive no mans land between them. It looks horrible. They should at least plant some flowers or something. That's because Cheam used to have four platforms, with an island platform between the remaining pair, so fast services could overtake stoppers. (If you look closely, you can see where the subway linking the platforms was modified when the island was removed.) Greenwich used to have a similar wide layout dating to its opening in 1836; it was a terminus for some decades and had additional tracks the purpose. The gap was removed with the arrival of the DLR, which involved resiting the "up" platform closer to the "down" to make room for the DLR's own facilities. Top Ten Record-Breaking Stations - Railway Technology Gare du Nord in Paris is reportedly Europe's busiest station in terms of passenger numbers.

Top Ten Record-Breaking Stations More than just a platform and tracks, rail stations are often the centrepiece of a nation's transport infrastructure. We look at ten of the world's record breakers. Grand Central Terminal, New York, US According to some sources, New York's Grand Central Terminal is the world's largest station in terms of platform capacity. It houses a staggering 44 platforms and 67 tracks over two levels below ground, which will be increased to a total of 75 tracks and 48 platforms when Long Island Rail Road's new station opens below the existing levels in 2013. Related project Grand Central Terminal Grand Central Terminal (GCT) is a station located on 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Covering an area of 48 acres, the station serves commuters travelling in New York State on the Metro-North Railroad to Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess counties, as well as Fairfield and New Haven counties in Connecticut. The station replaced the original Grand Central Station, which was demolished in phases between 1903 and 1913. Today's structure was designed by the architectural firms Reed and Stem and Warren and Wetmore.

Gare du Nord, Paris, France Gare Du Nord is reportedly Europe's busiest railway station in terms of total passenger numbers and the world's second-largest station in terms of passenger capacity. The station predominantly operates trains to Northern France but also offers high-speed connections to various international destinations such as the UK, Belgium, Germany and Holland. At the moment services are operated at the station by SNCF, Eurostar and Thalys. Gare Du Nord was constructed between 1861 and 1864 and designed by the French architect Jacques Hittorff. Shinjuku Station, Tokyo, Japan Shinjuku is often referred to as the world's busiest station in terms of daily passenger throughput. The station acts as a hub to connect rail traffic between central Tokyo and its western suburbs through a range of inter-city rail, commuter rail and metro lines. According to some sources, the station recorded an average of 3.64 million people per day in 2007. Related project Shinjuku Railway Station Shinjuku station is located in Shinjuku and Shibuya in Tokyo, Japan. An average of 3.5 million people use the station each day.

Shinjuku Station was opened in 1885 and is now home to a range of rail operators including East Japan Railway Company (JR East), Odakyu, Keio, Tokyo Metro and Toei. JR East section of the station alone has seven ground-level island platforms and 14 tracks, and handles an average of 1.5 million passengers per day. Clapham Junction, London, UK Clapham Junction is reportedly Europe's busiest station in terms of through daily rail traffic. The station is situated in the south west London borough of Wandsworth and as a result many routes from London's two busiest stations – Waterloo and Victoria – pass through its platforms. It is estimated that each day about 2,000 trains pass through Clapham Junction, while during peak times 180 trains reportedly pass through the station each hour, 117 of which stop. All services from Waterloo are operated by South West Trains while many from Victoria are catered to by Southern and Gatwick Express. Interchanges account for roughly 40% of all activities at the station.

Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Mumbai, India Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus is one of India's most historic and busiest stations. The station serves Central Railway trains – which covers much of the state of Maharashtra and parts of North-Eastern Karntaka and Southern Madhya Prades, making it the largest out of 16 of Indian Railways zones – alongside the Mumbai suburban railway. The station was designed by Frederick William Stevens in 1887–88 and is renowned for its gothic style, which bears more than a passing resemblance to London's St Pancras station. The station also featured prominently in the 2008 Academy Award winning movie Slumdog Millionaire. Nagoya Station, Nagoya, Japan Japan's Nagoya Station is the world's largest station in terms of floor area, which according to some sources stands at an astonishing 446,000m². It is the headquarters of the Central Japan Railway Company (JR Central), which has two towers that run atop of the station.

The station was completed in December 1999 and reportedly recorded an average of 1,140,000 passengers per day in 2006, making it at the time Japan's sixth-busiest station. Zurich Hauptbahnhof, Zurich, Switzerland Zurich Hauptbahnhof in Switzerland is often referred to as Europe's busiest station in terms of daily rail traffic. The station accommodates trains from all over Switzerland as well as from neighbouring European countries such as Italy, France and Germany. The station has three floors, one of which is largely dedicated to international trains, another which is for the exclusive use of SZU S-Bahn trains and the final one caters for regional operations. According to some sources, Zurich HB is served by more than 2,700 trains daily. Leipzig Hauptbahnhof, Saxony, Germany Leipzig Hauptbahnhof (often translated as Leipzig Central Station) is reportedly Europe's largest station according to floor area. The station opened in 1915 as an important junction between north-to-south and west-to-east German railway lines.

Today it has 24 platforms which, according to some sources, cater to an average of 150,000 passengers per day and a total of 54 million passengers per year. The station's most distinguishing feature is its multi-level concourse with towering stone arches and a 293m-long façade. During World War II, bombings led to the roof of the concourse collapsing but it was restored to its original appearance in the 1950s. Penn Station, New York, US New York's Penn Station is often referred to as North America's busiest station. According to some sources, the station serves 600,000 passengers a day at a rate of up to 1,000 every 90 seconds. "New York's Penn Station serves 600,000 passengers a day at a rate of up to 1,000 every 90 seconds." The station is located in the underground levels of Pennsylvania Plaza in Midtown Manhattan. It is owned by Amtrak and is home to the Northeast Corridor, a vital passenger rail line extending between New York, Washington and Boston.

It also serves commuters through the Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit as well as six New York Subway routes. Tanggula (Dangla) Station, Amdo County, China Tanggula Station is the highest in the world. It resides at an astonishing 5,068m above sea level and caters to the Qingzang railway – a high-altitude network that connects Xining, Qinghai Province to Lhasa in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. According to sources, the unstaffed station has a platform stretching more than 1.25km in length and has three rail tracks. The station offers stunning views of the Taggula Mountain, making it a sightseeing hotspot for tourists. Share London Underground: 150 fascinating Tube facts - Telegraph Telegraph 150 London Underground facts (including the birth of Jerry Springer in East Finchley station) It's closed today, but it's still interesting Credit: John Stillwell Jolyon Attwooll , Travel writer 9 January 2017 • 11:00am You can't ride it today, thanks to industrial action. But you can learn a few things about the Tube instead. 1.

There is only one Tube station which does not have any letters of the word 'mackerel' in it: St John's Wood. 2. The average speed on the Underground is 20.5 miles per hour including station stops. 3. The busiest Tube station is Waterloo, which was used by around 95 million passengers in 2015. In 2014 Oxford Circus took top spot, in 2009 it was Victoria, and in 2005 it was King's Cross, 4. On the Metropolitan line, trains can reach over 60mph. The Night Tube service started on August 19, 2016 Credit: AFP or licensors/DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS 5. The shortest distance between two adjacent stations on the underground network is only 260 metres. The tube journey between Leicester Square and Covent Garden on the Piccadilly Line takes only about 20 seconds, but costs £4.90 (cash fare). Yet it still remains one of the most popular journeys with tourists. 6.

Many tube stations were used as air-raid shelters during the Second World War, but the Central Line was even converted into a fighter aircraft factory that stretched for over two miles, with its own railway system. Its existence remained an official secret until the 1980s. 7. Angel has the Underground's longest escalator at 60m/197ft, with a vertical rise of 27.5m. 8. The shortest escalator is Stratford, with a vertical rise of 4.1m. 9. Only 45 per cent of the Underground is actually in tunnels. 10. The longest distance between stations is on the Metropolitan line from Chesham to Chalfont & Latimer: a total of only 3.89 miles. The history of the Tube in pictures 11. The longest continuous tunnel is on the Northern line and runs from East Finchley to Morden (via Bank), a total of 17.3 miles. 12. Aldgate Station, on the Circle and Metropolitan Lines, is built on a massive plague pit, where more than 1,000 bodies are buried. 13.

The longest journey without change is on the Central line from West Ruislip to Epping, and is a total of 34.1 miles. 14. The deepest station is Hampstead on the Northern line, which runs down to 58.5 metres. 15. In Central London the deepest station below street level is also the Northern line. It is the DLR concourse at Bank, which is 41.4 metres below. Only 45 per cent of the Underground is actually in tunnels 16. The TARDIS, (Dr Who’s transport) can be found outside Earl’s Court station. Or at least an old police call box can. 17. The London Underground manages about 10 per cent of all green spaces in London. 18. Wildlife observed on the Tube network includes woodpeckers, deer, sparrowhawk, bats, grass snakes, great crested newts, slow worms. 19. Over 47 million litres water are pumped from the Tube each day, enough to fill a standard leisure centre swimming pool (25 metres x 10 metres) every quarter of an hour. 20. The London Underground trains were originally steam powered. 21.

The station with the most platforms is Baker Street with 10 (Moorgate also has 10 platforms but only six are used by Tube trains - others are used by overground trains). 22.The District Line has the most stations: 60. There are 270 stations on the network Credit: Dominic Lipinski 23. The Waterloo and City Line has the fewest stations (no intermediate stations) 24. The Underground name first appeared on stations in 1908. 25. London Underground has been known as the Tube since 1890 due to the shape of the tunnels. 26. The first deep-level electric railway line also opened in 1890. 27. The Tube's logo is known as “the roundel” (a red circle crossed by a horizontal blue bar) 28. The station with the most escalators is Waterloo with 23. 29. The total number of passengers carried during 2013/14 was 1.265 billion – making it the world's 11th busiest metro. 30. The highest station above sea level is Amersham, at 147 metres.

What we love about the London Underground 31. Tube trains travelled 76.4 million kilometres last year. 32. The Northern line has the highest maximum number of trains required for scheduled peak period service: 91. The Tube's logo is known as “the roundel” Credit: Reuters Photographer 33. The Waterloo & City line has the fewest scheduled for peak period service at just five. 34. The total length of the London Underground network is 250 miles. 35. In 1926, suicide pits were installed beneath tracks due to a rise in the numbers of passengers throwing themselves in front of trains. 36. The eastern extension of the Jubilee line is the only Underground line to feature glass screens to deter "jumpers". 37. The earliest trains run from Osterley to Heathrow on the Piccadilly line, starting at 4.45am. 38. The greatest elevation above the ground level is on the Northern line at Dollis Brook viaduct over Dollis road, Mill Hill: it rises a total of 18 metres (60ft). 39. One of the early names proposed for the Victoria Line was the Viking line.

40. In 1924, the first baby was born on the Underground, on a train at Elephant & Castle on the Bakerloo line. The Tube's prettiest stations 41. The American talk show host Jerry Springer was born at East Finchley during the Second World War: his mother had taken shelter in the station from an air raid. 42. Builders working on the Bakerloo Line are reported to have suffered from the bends while tunnelling under the Thames. 43. The inaugural journey of the first Central line train in 1900 had the Prince of Wales and Mark Twain on board. The total length of the London Underground network is 250 miles Credit: PA 44. The tunnels beneath the City curve significantly because they follow its medieval street plan. 45. The Central line introduced the first flat fare when it opened at the turn of the 20th century. The tuppence fare lasted until the end of June 1907 when a threepenny fare was introduced for longer journeys. 46. Charles Pearson, MP and Solicitor to the City of London, is credited with successfully campaigning for the introduction of the Underground.

He died in 1862 shortly before the first train ran. 47. The first escalator on the Underground was installed at Earl's Court in 1911. 48. The first crash on the Tube occurred in 1938 when two trains collided between Waterloo and Charing Cross, injuring 12 passengers. 49. Harry Beck produced the well known Tube map diagram while working as an engineering draughtsman at the London Underground Signals Office. He was reportedly paid 10 guineas (£10.50) for his efforts. 50. Harry Beck’s map was considered too big a departure from the norm, but the public liked it and it became official in 1933. 51. Busking has been licensed on the Tube since 2003. 52. Sting and Paul McCartney are both rumoured to have busked on the Underground in disguise. 53. The phrase "Mind the gap" dates back to 1968. The recording that is broadcast on stations was first done by Peter Lodge, who had a recording company in Bayswater.

A photo posted by bologna|2001|galvani (@_f_r_e_0_1_) on Aug 18, 2016 at 4:53am PDT 54. The Peter Lodge recording of “Mind the Gap” is still in use, but some lines use recordings by a Manchester voice artist Emma Clarke. On the Piccadilly line the recording is notable for being the voice of Tim Bentinck, who plays David Archer in The Archers. 55. The Jubilee Line was the only Underground Line to connect with all the others until the East London line ceased to be part of the Underground in 2007 (now the Central Line does too). 56. Approximately 50 passengers a year kill themselves on the Underground. 57. Fewer than 10 per cent of Tube stations lie south of the Thames. 58. The total number of lifts on the Underground, including four stair lifts, is 167. Ye Olde London Underground Credit: Getty 59. Smoking was banned on the Underground as a result of the King's Cross fire in November 1987 which killed 31 people.

A discarded match was thought to be the cause of that inferno. 60. An estimated half a million mice live in the Underground system. London's lost Tube stations: in pictures 61. 1961 marked the end of steam and electric haulage of passenger trains on the London Underground. 62. One of the levels in Tomb Raider 3 is set in the disused Aldwych tube station, featuring scenes of Lara Croft killing rats. 63. In the film Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the Hogwarts headmaster has a scar that resembles a map of the London Underground on his knee. 64.There are only two tube station names that contain all five vowels: Mansion House, and South Ealing. 65. Edward Johnston designed the font for the London Underground in 1916. The font he came up with is still in use today. 66. Amersham is also the most westerly tube station, as well as the highest (see above). 67. A macabre statistic is that the most popular tube suicide time is around 11am. 68.

In January 2005, in an attempt to alleviate a problem with loitering young people, the London Underground announced it would play classical music at problem stations. Which buildings survived the Great Fire of London? 69. The Underground has the oldest section of underground railway in the world, which opened in 1863. 70. The first section of the Underground ran between Paddington (Bishop's Road) and Farringdon Street. The same section now forms part of the Circle, Hammersmith & City, and Metropolitan lines. London Underground: 10 of the funniest videos 71.The Underground was first used for air raid shelters in September 1940. 72. During the Second World War, part of the Piccadilly line (Holborn - Aldwych branch), was closed and British Museum treasures were stored in the empty spaces. 73. The London Passenger Transport Board was nationalised and became the London Transport Executive in 1948. 74. The first Tube tunnel was opened in 1880, running from the Tower of London to Bermondsey. 75.

The Central Line used to be nicknamed as the 'Twopenny Tube' for its flat fare. 76. Dot matrix train destination indicators were introduced onto London Underground platforms in 1983. 77. The single worst accident in terms of fatalities on the Underground occurred on February 28, 1975 at Moorgate, when 42 people died. 78. The Piccadilly line extended to serve Heathrow Terminal 4 in 1986. 79. Penalty fares were only introduced in 1994. 80. The Tube carried one billion passengers in a year for the first time in 2007. London Underground quiz 81.The last manually operated doors on Tube trains (replaced by air-operated doors) were phased out in 1929. 82.The Jubilee Line was named to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee in 1977 – but the line did not open until 1979. A photo posted by Merve (@lknmerve) on Aug 1, 2016 at 12:25pm PDT 83.

A census carried out on September 27, 1940, found that 177,500 Londoners were sleeping in Tube stations. 84. During the war, special supply trains ran, providing seven tonnes of food and 2,400 gallons of tea and cocoa every night to people staying in the Tube. 85. Covent Garden is believed to be haunted by the ghost of William Terris who met an untimely death near the station in 1897. 86. Another station that is believed to be haunted is Farringdon. The so-called Screaming Spectre is believed to have been a milliner. 87. The Seven Sisters Underground station is believed to have been named after a line of elm trees which stood nearby until the 1830s. 88. The fictitious station of Walford East, which features in the long-running soap opera Eastenders, is supposed to be on the District Line. 89. Every week, Underground escalators travel the equivalent distance of going twice around the world. 90.

According to TFL, London Underground trains travel a total of 1,735 times around the world (or 90 trips to the moon and back) each year. 91. A spiral escalator was installed in 1907 at Holloway Road station, but linear escalators were favoured for the rest of the network. A small section of the spiral escalator is in the Acton depot. 92. A small section of the old London Wall survives in the trackside walls of Tower Hill station at platform level. One of the largest pieces of the wall also stands just outside this station. 93. Finsbury Park station has murals that show a pair of duelling pistols, harking back to a time when men would visit the park after hours to defend their honour. The Jubilee line receives the most complaints Credit: © Pixel Youth movement / Alamy Stock Photo/Pixel Youth movement / Alamy Stock Photo 94. In 2012, the most complained about line was the Jubilee. 95. The London Underground is thought to be the third largest metro system in the world, in terms of miles, after the Beijing Subway and the Shanghai Metro. 96.

The London Underground is the third busiest metro system in Europe, after Moscow and Paris. 97. The coffin of Dr. Thomas Barnardo was carried in funeral cortege on an underground train in 1905, one of only two occasions this is known to have happened. 98. The Underground helped over 200,000 children escape to the countryside during the Second World War. 99. During the war, some stations (now mostly disused) were converted into government offices: a station called Down Street was used for meetings of the Railway Executive Committee, as well as for the War Cabinet before the Cabinet War Rooms were built. 100. Brompton Road (now disused) on the Piccadilly, Line was apparently used as a control room for anti-aircraft guns. 101. Only five London Underground stations lie outside the M25 motorway The Night Tube is finally here Credit: AFP or licensors/DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS 102. The Underground runs 24 hours a day at New Year, during special events (such as for the opening and closing ceremonies of the London Olympics), and on selected lines at the weekend. 103.

According to a 2002 study air quality on the Underground was 73 times worse than at street level, with 20 minutes on the Northern Line having "the same effect as smoking a cigarette". 104. The former poet laureate John Betjeman created 'Metroland' series, a homage to the people and places served by the Metropolitan line in 1973. Ride the Emirates Air Line cable car with this 360° video 105. The Oyster card was introduced in 2003. 106. The worst civilian death toll on the Underground occurred at Bethnal Green Tube tragedy in 1943, when 173 people died. It is the largest loss of life in a single incident on the London Underground network. 107. The largest number of people killed by a single wartime bomb was 68 at Balham Station. 108. The 100th anniversary of the roundel (the Tube Logo) was celebrated in 2008 by TfL commissioning 100 artists to produce works that celebrate the design. 109.

The largest Tube car park is at Epping and has 599 parking spots. 110. The Central Line has the most tube stations with no surface building (Bank, Bethnal Green, Chancery Lane, Gants Hill, Notting Hill Gate) 111. Of the stations that have stairs, Hampstead Station has the most steps (320 in total). 112. There are 14 journeys between stations that take less than a minute on average. 113. King's Cross St Pancras tube station is served by more Underground lines than any other station on the network. 114. Seven London Boroughs are not served by the underground system, six of them being situated south of the River Thames. 115. The total number of carriages in London Underground's fleet, as of January 2013, was 4,134. 116. The total number of stations served on the network is 270. 117. London Underground transferred from the control of the Government to Transport for London (TfL) on July 15, 2003. 118.

Scenes from the film Sliding Doors were shot at Waterloo station on the Waterloo & City Line and at Fulham Broadway tube station on the District Line. 119. Filming on location in the Underground costs £500 per hour (plus VAT) unless you have a crew of less than five. 120. You can now no longer go around the Circle Line in a full circle. From 2009, the Circle Line terminated at Edgware Road. 121. Greenford on the Central Line was the last Tube station to use wooden escalators. They were replaced in 2014. 122. Arsenal (originally Gillespie Road) on Piccadilly line is the only station named after a football team. 123. There are three tube stations on the Monopoly board: Liverpool Street Station, King’s Cross and Marylebone. Watch | How to land at Britain's trickiest airport 03:57 124. The number of stations that only use escalators is 12 125. Nineteen stations just use lifts. 126.

The River Westbourne was funnelled above a platform on Sloane Square in a large iron pipe suspended from girders. It remains in place today. 127. The first tube station to be demolished was Westbourne Park on the Metropolitan Line. It was re-sited in 1871. 128. There is a mosquito named after the Tube – the London Underground mosquito, which was found in the London Underground. It was notable for its assault of Londoners sleeping in the Underground during the Blitz. 129.The London Underground Film Office handles over 200 requests a month. 130. In Alfred Hitchcock’s first feature film The Lodger (1926) featured the director making a cameo on the Tube. 131. The record for visiting all the stations on the London Underground network – known as the Tube Challenge – is currently held by Ronan McDonald and Clive Burgess of the United Kingdom, who completed the challenge in 16 hours, 14 minutes and 10 seconds on February 19, 2015 132.

The Tube Challenge record did not appear in the Guinness book of records until its eighth edition in 1960, when it stood at 18 hours, 35 minutes. 133. An interactive novel has been published, set on the London Underground. You can read it here . 134. In cockney rhyming slang, the London Underground is known as the Oxo (Cube/Tube). 135. Around 30,000 passengers went on The Metropolitan Line on its first day of public business – January 10, 1863. 136. There were claims the first baby born on the Underground was called Thelma Ursula Beatrice Eleanor (so that her initials would have read TUBE) but this story later proved false – her actual name was Marie Cordery. London brunch 137. On August 3 2012, during the Olympic Games, the London Underground had its most hectic day ever, carrying 4.4 million passengers – but that record was beaten on Friday December 4 2015, when 4.82 million people used it. 138.

St James is the only Underground Station to have Grade-I protected status. It includes 55 Broadway, the administrative headquarters of London’s Underground since the 1930s. 139. The most recent Tube birth – a boy – was in 2009. 140. The most common location for filming is Aldwych, a disused station. 141. As Princess Elizabeth, the Queen travelled on the Underground for the first time in May 1939, when she was 13 years old, with her governess Marion Crawford and Princess Margaret. Apr 30, 2016 at 3:30pm PDT 142. Poems on the Underground was launched in 1986, the idea of American writer Judith Chernaik. 143. A series of animal shapes have also been highlighted in the London Underground map, first discovered by Paul Middlewick in 1988. They're created using the tube lines, stations and junctions of the London Underground map. 144. A fragrance known as Madeleine was trialled at St.

James Park, Euston, and Piccadilly stations in 2001, intended to make the Tube more pleasant. It was stopped within days after complaints from people saying they felt ill. 145. There were eight deep-level shelters built under the London Underground in the Second World War. One of them in Stockwell is decorated as a war memorial. 146. After the war, the deep level shelter at Clapham South housed immigrants from the West Indies. 147. A 2011 study suggested 30 per cent of passengers take longer routes due to the out-of-scale distances on the Tube map. 148. The first ever air-conditioned, walk-through Underground train ran on the Metropolitan line in 2010. 149. The average distance travelled by each Tube train annually stands at around 114,500 miles. 150. Alcohol was banned on the Tube – and all London Transport – from June 2008. Editor's note: Note that one or two facts have changed since this article was first published in 2014 and this has been updated to reflect those changes.

The Best Hotels In London Mind The Gap - London Underground Station Platform gaps London Underground Platform Gaps and the origins of Mind The Gap Mind the Gap Why there are gaps There are many reasons why Underground lines are not straight lines. It may be that the best route to serve passengers is not a straight one. It may be because the older lines felt constrained to run directly beneath roads to avoid the expensive complications of buying up property or negotiating wayleave rights, once more difficult than now. The fact is that the older lines twist and turn. We users are often unconscious of this, unless one of the turns happens to be at a station. Then we get the problem of ‘gaps’. Gaps between the platform edge and the railway car occur where the platform edge follows a curved path. A railway car (the Underground has ‘cars’ rather than ‘carriages’, following American practice), for fairly obvious reasons, has straight sides. It therefore follows that if one part of the car is right next to the curved platform, then other parts cannot be. The problems arise at doorways.

These tend to be spaced evenly along a train, so at a curved platform there will inevitably be some doors that are right next to the platform edge — the ideal position — but that means some other doors along the train will be an unnaturally long way from the edge, with the possibility that someone not looking, or losing their balance, could fall into the gap. Hence the warning — ‘mind the gap’! Now, since we know where the gaps are, and the doorway positions are selected by people and are not a mere accident, there might be those among you who would think that the gaps at doorways should have been done away with by now, but it is not so simple. For a start there are two sorts of gap. Where platforms are situated on the outside of the curve, the railway car ends are located as close as is possible to the platform edge, but that means the centre of the car will be some way away. On the other hand, where a platform edge runs along the inside of the curve, it will be the centre of the car that is right up against the platform but the ends will be a long way away. The same cars have to cope with both situations, so the outcome is that compromises are made.

It is a tad more complicated than this because tube-type cars are so small that the tops of the wheels are above floor level (you can’t see them because they are always boxed in by seats), and that means that until new trains arrive with small wheels the doors must be either side of the wheel locations, rather restricting where they can go. On tube cars this usually means large doorways about one third and two thirds the way along, and smaller doorways at the ends in the small gap between the wheels and car ends. Trains didn’t always have doors here but that left very large intervals between successive doors which caused congestion, so from 1930 end doors have always been provided. The outcome is that at curved platforms the main doors will always present a gap (but never the maximum gap between platform and train), but the end doors will either be the closest to the platform or the furthest away depending on type of platform. The gaps, by the way, can be up to about 400mm in the worst cases. The upper photo shows an 'outside' platform leaving gap in centre of car, while the lower photo shows an 'inside' platform leaving gaps at car ends.

Visible in both photos are the 'Mind the Gap' warnings painted onto the platforms at doorway positions and the shelf under the platform edge (with the black and white stripes) that would help break the fall of anyone stepping into the gap. Mitigating the risks If we cannot eliminate gaps, you can be sure that for about a century railway staff have been struggling to mitigate the risks they present. We must first turn our minds back to the kind of railway that existed in those days. Tube trains (the little ones) comprised rakes of cars that only had doors in the ends. These led onto small, open, gated gangways. Each gangway was manned by a ‘gateman’ who only opened the platform gates after the train had stopped and could warn passengers about any gaps and even help them on and off. This probably contributed to a climate where curved platforms were tolerated with less concern than we would expect today. It so happened that because the entrances were at the extreme ends of cars, the only problem stations were those where ‘inside’ curves existed — these are the ones which maximize the gaps at the ends.

These stations were Wood Lane and Bank (westbound platform), and Paddington (northbound platform); frankly with only these stations and lots of staff, the problem could be managed. At other curved platforms, the entrances were, if anything, brought closer. The next stage of development saw the slow introduction of doors in the centre of cars to meet demand. The first line to have these was the Piccadilly Line, from 1914. It is a curious thing but virtually every platform is straight, more or less. Piccadilly Circus has kinks in it and there is a nasty curve at the south end of the eastbound platform at Holborn (an outside curve), but this only extends over about two car-lengths and as many trains were quite short the ill effects could be avoided altogether. It wasn’t until 1920 or so when centre-doors appeared on the Bakerloo Line and this highlighted the unfortunate gap problems at Paddington and Waterloo. The risk was understood immediately and the solution was very simple — the centre doors were locked out of use at the sharply curved platforms.

This achieved the objective, but was counter-productive in that it was at these very stations they were most needed and it must have been confusing for passengers and appeared perverse. The Underground’s goal was the introduction of automatically controlled doors at frequent intervals along whole trains, and for all trains to be equipped. This would improve general safety, reduce boarding times and allow more trains to run to increase line capacity. It would also reduce staff numbers and costs (which were always very tight). Safety was increased because doors would always be controlled by (ultimately) one person, would be positively locked shut, and be proved shut before the starting signal could be given. The controlling medium was compressed air (the Underground uses compressed air in unimaginable quantities), so trains fitted with these doors were called air-door trains. Air-doored trains were introduced in large quantity in the 1920s. These generally had wide twin doorways immediately inboard of the bogies (the structures carrying the wheels), thus producing a modest gap, whether alongside either inside or outside curves.

Exact operating instructions have not been determined, excepting that on the more sharply curved platforms the edges were painted white (it was not then generally the custom to white-line edges) and certainly by 1926 station and train staff were required to call out ‘mind the gap’ at stations where large gaps existed. Accidents where the gaps were implicated had to be specially reported upon, noting exact point where it happened. This pictures shows Waterloo in 1923. Platform under-edge lighting has already been installed, and the white-painted under-edge shelf is in position, but no warning notices are evident. By 1928, it was no longer (apparently) necessary to paint the edges of curved platforms, but instructions draw attention to lighting having been provided beneath the edges of curved platforms at tunnel stations, together with ledges (which had to be painted white). Train and station staff had still to call out a warning.

This may well have resulted from a staff suggestion made in March 1922 by Gateman T Jones of Hammersmith depot — apparently implemented at the end 1922 after which centre doors on the rear car of a new 6-car train with automatic doors could be used at Holborn (eastbound) to deal with the gap at its south end. We also know that from May 1934, the under-edge lighting at Charing Cross (Northern Line northbound) and Waterloo (Bakerloo northbound) was altered to illuminate only when a train was berthed in the platform. This was achieved by means of a projector lamp, mirror and photocell arrangement, the lighting being arranged to switch on when the beams (incident and reflected) were broken by a train correctly berthed. Piccadilly Circus followed in February 1935, and Waterloo (Bakerloo southbound) in March. A photograph dated 17 January 1936 shows signs mounted at Waterloo along the platform edge at train height level lettered “Beware of the gap” with “Mind the gap” markings on platforms at intervals along the edge. This may have been installed with the lamp switching or later during the year.

A 1951 description of the gap problem suggests these overhead signs flashed (and I dimly recall them doing so). This reference also refers to the earlier need for staff to ‘bawl out warnings’ but rather implies this was no longer done, or at least not reliably. I should break off here to say that pretty much everything I have just said applies more particularly to the small tube-type trains. Those trains on what later became the District and Metropolitan Lines always had hand-operated doors opened, and, when cold, closed by the passengers and there were always several staff on the train with much platform staffing. The aim was for straight platforms but many were curved and presented some very large gaps too. Trains with air door control were introduced in 1936 and most of the fleet was converted by the mid 1950s. 1951 instructions note that by then all platforms had painted white lines along the edge except those on curves where the under-coping ledge was white instead. Between 1951 and 1964 arrangements were again changed with stations with gaps now having a white line along the edge (like everywhere else) and the under coping ledge being painted with black and white diagonal stripes (as today).

We may therefore take it that the expression ‘Mind the Gap’ can certainly be dated to the early 1920s, though it is very likely that it goes back farther than that and quite possibly to the opening of the tube lines having the gaps (perhaps 1900 in the case of the Central London Railway). Audible warnings were given by staff, and we can see that notices and warning signs were provided. That is the position in the early 1960s, but what happened then? Recorded Announcements The short answer is that the only new measure developed to deal with curvature-induced gaps was the slow roll out of automated announcements. This may sound particularly odd to anyone who is aware of the huge staff shortages in the 1960s and the difficulty in providing adequate staff at busy stations with curved platforms. The reality was that there was not only no suitable technology to do so, but at platform level there was no technology at all, at least, not beyond the station lighting and the odd telephone. The first public address systems didn’t arrive until 1944, and that initiative was confined to just twelve busy stations.

A few more were slowly added over the years, but even in the early 1980s a large number of stations had nothing better than a megaphone. It is true that Holborn was equipped with a CCTV system and centralized public address in 1962 But that was purely experimental and its fruits were not realized until the Victoria Line opened in 1968. After that the system was very slow to catch up and it wasn’t until after the fateful King’s Cross fire that modern communications became universal. Without public address there could be no recorded announcements either. There have been recorded announcements on the Underground for many years, but only covering very small areas. More than one attempt has been made to encourage considerate behaviour on escalators; an attempt was made, for example, in 1920 using a kind of compressed air amplifier that took a signal from a gramophone recording to bawl out 'Stand on the Right'. From the 1930s announcements were to be found in lifts; this one went ‘Stand Clear of the Gates’ followed by an audible click. The technology here relied on the use of a film strip and photocell arrangement in the same manner found on film sound tracks.

The click was where the word ‘Please’ had been excised, presumably by just painting over the relevant part of the sound track. The offending word had evidently been the subject of debate and those who felt that the feeling of urgency should over-ride that of politeness finally won the day. It is regrettable perhaps, but having spent many years on the Underground it is a feeling I would have to agree with: if crowd-handling matters are not treated with urgency they can all too easily get out of hand. I remember the thin voice used in the lifts, but they were only used in the original automatic lifts of 1930s-50s period because the doors were closed by a timer rather than a person (most lifts were staffed). Such primitive technology was not felt suitable for use on platform public address systems, for some reason. I now realize that not very much has been said about station public address systems and automatic announcement systems.

It is a matter I need to remedy, but at this moment do not have much to hand, so will forebear except to mention that the pundits think that London Transport went for a solid state system in around 1970 and these were deployed at odd locations thereafter until the network was modernized at the end of the 1980s. The word digital has been used, but this date seems to me far too early for that. More anon. More than one sort of gap I mentioned earlier the words curvature induced gaps because those gaps are specifically related to curved platforms. It should be perfectly obvious, though, that there are other kinds of gap. For example, even along straight platforms there must be a gap between train and platform, for otherwise the train would scrape along the platform edge, which is not a good thing at all. How much gap? Well there are modern standards that are designed to ensure gaps are as small as practicable but much of the system is very old and built long before there was any standard at all. It is not helpful that the width of trains can vary and that different station owners in the past have each had their own practice.

The various owners of the Underground have sought to avoid flamboyance whenever tempted to do so and settle on fairly boring train designs that, at floor level, maintain a degree of standardization. The gap risk is mitigated by the use of floors that are higher than the platforms and use of sill plates at doorways that ‘oversail’ the edge of the platform (on some trains the train sides over-sailed slightly as well. This had the disadvantage of creating a step, but a compensating advantage that in a directly vertical plane there was no practical gap at all. It was a feature that worked reasonably well. I should remind regular readers of my blog item on train floor heights. In brief, the good Mr Yerkes, who built and modernized much of the Underground in early Edwardian days, wanted train floors that were level with the platforms. He felt a step hugely reduced boarding and alighting times at stations. Unfortunately, for technical reasons, train floors could not then be lowered so he wanted to raise platform heights instead. This led to lengthy and fruitless discussions with the Board of Trade, which was then responsible for railway safety, and who were not at all helpful. Thus for another century we have had a step at the platform edge.

Now the new Underground S stock has got lower floors which by and large are at the same level as the platforms. The only way this can be achieved is by pinching in the width of the train at floor level, for, without over-sailing, the floor must be narrower to provide clearance. I must see if I still have some boarding time data for the old trains and see if the same-level entrances are any quicker, but it was mainly done to benefit those less abled people who found the step a problem. Of course, this now means there is an all-too-obvious gap at every platform, but it is fortunately not usually a large one. It also means a few already large gaps on curves are now even larger, possibly by 50mm or more. You will have perceived from what I have just said first that there must be horizontal gaps at any station, it is merely that they are not usually very big and assistance can be given by coloured lines and floor level train lighting, which is now standard on new trains. Secondly I have introduced the matter of vertical gaps, or steps.

More Compromising Vertical gaps will be partly managed away as new trains arrive, but the Underground has what may be a unique historical problem to cope with, and it will be very interesting to see how things pan out. I have mentioned tube trains (the small ones) that are designed to operate in circular deep level tube tunnels. There are then the big trains that operate on the Metropolitan, Hammersmith & Circle and District Lines which are more or less the same size as main line trains. At doorways, the floor height of a tube train is about 685mm above rail level while that of a big train is about 1125mm. All was well when each train type kept to its own system, but inter-running of services became a fad for a number of years and the present system is stuck with them – most are rather useful so one cannot just stop inter-running. Inter-running occurs between Rayners Lane and Uxbridge, Acton Town and Ealing Common, and over the London Overground between Queens Park and Harrow & Wealdstone. The problem is what height to make the platforms.

If they were either of tube height or of main line height then the resulting step up or down would be excessive for even able-bodied people, and a big step down into a tube train also risks the banging of the head on the doorway roof. The answer, by no means entirely satisfactory, is to share the pain by making the platform an intermediate height, usually, and very appropriately, called ‘compromise height’. This is about 840mm above rail level and suits nobody, but at least the able bodied can prepare for it and cope, by and large. I have seen people struggle. Of course this gives the tube trains a problem because if the standard arrangement is to over-sail platforms then the sills will hit a higher level platform. In consequence the platform nosings must be set back more, but I wonder if under-sailing the edges has been tried out. The use of S stock has reduced the step up at compromise stations, but still leaves a big step for the tube trains. Of course, if lower-floored tube trains are introduced as planned then it will amplify this step and be awkward to manage during any stock changeover.

Dual height train operation used to be even more common than just described and has left traces all over the network where there are now random height steps up and down (eg on Northern, Central, Jubilee and Piccadilly Lines). These are slowly being managed away, often by altering track levels, but it makes the concept of a standard platform height an interesting one. We see, therefore, that there are horizontal gaps, vertical gaps and there will obviously be combinations of the two. The wide gaps are an annoyance when it is busy and you can’t always quite see them when it is very crowded, especially when getting off. There are not really many really nasty gaps on the Underground, but on the shared section up to Harrow I would commend the rear end of a Bakerloo train at Willesden Junction for a nasty example of huge step height difference combined with a curve-type gap. This one, at Willesden Junction is about 15 inches. Lest anyone think that the Underground is uniquely blessed with gaps I must put them right and draw attention to some really evil gaps on National Rail (and of course on many continental systems there are no platforms deserving of the word and steps must nearly always be used).

For those you would like a memorable experience I commend platform 17 at Clapham Junction when it is busy (which it now is much of the time). Now that is a gap: one really needs to plan one’s exit from the carriage before testing it. I nearly visited its inner workings myself when some maniac right in front alighted and then stopped dead, obvious of the fact they now constituted a serious obstruction and leaving me in mid leap, cartoon like, and with nowhere to land. I reckon that gap is over 500mm and it combines with serious difference in platform-train height. Level Boarding Areas One means of mitigating gaps, particularly with disabled customers and wheelchairs in mind, is to provide a section of platform at each station that is the same height as the train floor. This is only useful if the elevated sections line up with the same cars at every station and if platforms are consistent in height so as to enable a useful number of stations to be fitted. The Victoria Line is equipped this way. However the new trains still have a door sill that oversails the platform edge slightly so simply raising the platform would obstruct the sweep of the sill.

The solution adopted has the edge of the raised section set back a little so the sill can pass by yet leave only a small gap afterwards. The photo below shows the arrangement. At bottom of photo a door sill is just visible a few centimetres higher than ordinary part of the platform and slightly overhanging. Ahead is a raised portion of platform, ramped at each end. The raised edge is set back, eliminating vertical gap but introducing a small horizontal gap instead. The original platform edge is just visible underneath. I'm not sure the slightly unsettling shifting of the yellow safety line and tactile surface is what the standard-setter intended and suspect a better approach to this visual arrangement might be called for. The raised section is about a car's length Platform supervision The mitigating measures cannot eliminate all risk and so accidents do occasionally happen and someone will fall into a gap. This is not frequent given the volume of passengers and there can be many reasons for it happening, not least alcohol related activity. The actual reasons are not particularly relevant to this theme; what we must consider is what happens when someone has not minded the gap. On the whole, reliance is placed on the train operator checking that it is safe to proceed before taking the train away.

Modern trains have in-cab CCTV that relays pictures from multiple cameras that are set up so they can see the platform-train gap along the whole length of the platform even if crowded. Operators of older trains achieve the same ends using multiple CCTV monitors on the platform, opposite the driving position. Resolution is pretty good and virtually all incidents are spotted before a train moves. At busy or awkward platforms staff are available to see trains away. The platform staff member is required to raise a croquet racquet (well, that is what it looks like) when satisfied it is safe for the train to move, and to keep it raised until the first few cars have departed. The operator is required to check the racquet can be seen as the train pulls out and stop and investigate immediately if it disappears. Managing the platform-train interface (of which the gap itself is only one element) is a real problem, but it must be done as it is where a large proportion of accidends do happen. For the future the gaps should slowly be managed away when reconstruction schemes emerge, but recent evidence suggests this could take a century or longer to do as it is logistically very difficult and the costs rarely warrant it.

Possibly moving ramps or something of the sort, worked in conjunction with platform edge doors, but this, too, would not be cheap and reduces flexibility if it is ever desired to change trains. I have so far kept my observations fairly general, but I have spent a little time examining the various gaps, at least at tube-type stations. I have also made some approximate measurements, which I offer in the table below. I have tried to get measurements correct to about +/- 25mm. It is a surprisingly tricky business as the door sills are invariably much higher than the platform and it depends where along the sill one tries to measure. I would suggest they are good enough to indicate the general ordering of gaps from very wide to very small, but no more than that. The worst gap so far identified is Bank, eastbound Central, for about three car lengths at the west end where a number of double-doorways present a very bad gap. Piccadilly Circus, Bakerloo, has several quite nasty gaps, but only over very short lengths that do not affect very many doorways. Bank, Central Line, westbound is the next worst and affects the whole platform, though only end doors. Station

Question: Which London railway station has the most platforms?
Answer: Waterloo